TVSquad

• At 8, CBS has a new Ghost Whisperer, followed by new episodes of Medium and Numb3rs.
• NBC has a new Law and Order at 8, then new episodes of Dateline and The Jay Leno Show.
• The CW has a new Smallville at 8.
• PBS has a new Washington Week at 8, followed by new episodes of NOW and Bill Moyers Journal.
• MyNetwork TV has a new Smackdown! at 8.
• The season finale of DietTribe airs on Lifetime at 8.
• Nickelodeon has a new episode of The Troop at 8:
• Also at 8: Disney has a new Wizards of Waverly Place, then a new Suite Life on Deck.
• At 8:30, Cartoon Network has a new Ben 10: Alien Force, followed by a new episode of The Clone Wars.
• At 9, USA has a new Monk, then a new White Collar.
• Syfy has a new Stargate Universe at 9, followed by a new Sanctuary.
• Food Network has Dear Food Network: Thanksgiving Disasters at 9.
• Travel Channel has two new episodes of Ghost Adventures at 9.
• BBC America has a new Friday Night with Jonathan Ross at 9.
• At 10, ABC has a new 20/20.
• STARZ has a new Crash at 10.
• E! has a new episode of The Soup at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

• At 8, ABC has a new Supernanny, followed by new episodes of Ugly Betty and 20/20.
• CBS has a new Ghost Whisperer at 8, then new episodes of Medium and Numb3rs.
• NBC has a new Law & Order at 8.
• The CW has a new Smallville at 8.
• There's a new Washington Week on PBS at 8, followed by new episodes of NOW and Bill Moyers Journal.
• MyNetwork TV has a new Smackdown! at 8.
• Disney has a new Wizards of Waverly Place at 8.
• Cartoon Network has a new episode of The Clone Wars at 8, followed by a new Ben 10: Alien Force.
• Travel Channel has a new Ghost Adventures Live: Post-Mortem at 8, then two new episodes of Ghost Adventures.
• At 9, USA has a new Monk, then a new White Collar.
• Syfy has a new Stargate Universe at 9, followed by a new Sanctuary.
• BBC America has a new Friday Night with Jonathan Ross at 9.
• National Geographic Channel has a new Dog Whisperer at 9.
• At 10, NBC has a new Jay Leno Show.
• History Channel has a new Lock 'N Load with R. Lee Ermey at 10.
• Also at 10: E! has a new episode of The Soup.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

• At 7:30, Cartoon Network has a new Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
• At 8, ABC has a new Supernanny, followed by new episodes of Ugly Betty and 20/20.
• CBS has a new Ghost Whisperer at 8, then new episodes of Medium and Numb3rs.
• NBC has new episodes of Law and Order, Dateline, and The Jay Leno Show.
• FOX has a new Brothers at 8, followed by new episodes of 'Til Death and Dollhouse.
• There's a new Smallville on The CW at 8.
• PBS has a new Washington Week at 8, then new episodes of NOW and Bill Moyers Journal.
• MyNetwork TV has a new Smackdown! at 8.
• ESPN2 has College Football at 8, Rutgers vs. Army.
• Nickelodeon has a new episode of The Troop at 8.
• Also at 8: Disney has a new Wizards of Waverly Place, followed by a new Suite Life on Deck.
• At 8:30, Cartoon Network has a new Ben 10: Alien Force.
• At 9, USA has a new Monk, then the series premiere of White Collar.
• Syfy has a new episode of Stargate Universe at 9, followed by a new Sanctuary.
• BBC America has a new Friday Night with Jonathan Ross at 9.
• At 10, E! has a new episode of The Soup.
• History Channel has a new Lock 'N Load with R. Lee Ermey at 10.
• Travel Channel has two new episodes of Ghost Stories at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

• TBS has Baseball Playoffs all night.
• IFC has a marathon of The Prisoner all night.
• At 8, CBS has a new Ghost Whisperer, followed by new episodes of Medium and Numb3rs.
• NBC has a new Law and Order at 8, then new episodes of Dateline and The Jay Leno Show.
• FOX has new episodes of Brothers, 'Til Death, and Dollhouse.
• There's a new Smallville on The CW at 8.
• PBS has a new Washington Week at 8, then new episodes of NOW and Bill Moyers Journal.
• MyNetwork TV has a new Smackdown! at 8.
• Disney has a new Wizards of Waverly Place at 8.
• Cartoon Network has a new Clone Wars at 8, followed by a new Ben 10: Alien Force.
• At 9, USA has a new Monk, followed by a new Psych.
• Syfy has a new Stargate Universe at 9, then a new Sanctuary.
• BBC America has Friday Night with Streisand & Ross at 9.
• Lifetime has a new DietTribe at 9.
• At 9:30, Cartoon Network has a new episode of The Othersiders.
• At 10, HBO has a new Real Time with Bill Maher.
• Food Network has a new Chefs vs. City at 10.
• History Channel has a new Lock 'N Loaded with R. Lee Ermey at 10.
• E! has a new episode of The Soup at 10.
• Also at 10: Comedy Central has a new Comedy Central Presents.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

Here are the new TV DVDs in stores tomorrow.

The fall not only means that the new seasons and new shows start up, but also it's the time when season sets of TV shows are released to coincide with the new seasons of those shows. So this week we have DVDs for shows like Big Bang Theory, CSI: Miami, Grey's Anatomy, and It's Always Sunny.

• Astro Boy - Vols. 1-5
• The Big Bang Theory - Season 2
• Bonanza - Season 1, Vols 1 and 2
• CSI: Miami - Season 7

Stargate Atlantis alum Paul McGillion has signed on to guest star on Syfy's Sanctuary. The actor, who played Dr. Carson Beckett, and later played Dr. Beckett's clone (it's complicated), on Atlantis will appear in the final two episodes of Sanctuary's second season. McGillion will play "Wexford," a character he played in the original Web series version of Sanctuary. The show's second season kicks off Oct. 9.

This news might get me to start watching Sanctuary regularly again. It's not a bad show, but it never really hooked me. Like Warehouse 13, the procedural elements of the show felt tedious, and I never really connected to any of the characters.

Now that Eureka is back to deliver my weekly feel good sci-fi fix, I'm eagerly anticipating the death and darkness promised by the producers of the upcoming Stargate Universe. The wait will be over October 2 when the series premieres with a two-hour episode on Syfy.

Tentatively titled "Air," the premiere will follow a research team that gets cut off from Earth after boarding an Ancient ship with failing life support and a steampunk Stargate. The premiere will feature appearances by franchise vets Richard Dean Anderson and Michal Shanks and will, of course, introduce us to the new crew, including Robert Carlyle, David Blue and Lou Diamond Phillips. (Does anyone else out there have the feeling that LDP is gonna bite it, Robert Patrick style, in the premiere?)

Syfy also announced fall premiere dates for returning shows, including Sanctuary and Destination Truth. Check out the schedule:

Everybody loves a good mystery. Well maybe not everybody if the ratings for Harper's Island are any indication. But mysteries and suspense have been a part of television since it's inception. It's one thing for the plot to be full of mysteries. Things like "Who shot J.R.?" can become a part of popular culture. But J.R. himself wasn't a mystery, we knew him pretty well.

But there are those characters we don't know much about. Think about Benjamin Linus from Lost when he first appeared as Henry Gale among the Flight 815 survivors. There were so many secrets and mysteries surrounding him that we couldn't take our eyes off of him when he was on-screen. Well Ben's story may be more or less told, though something tells me there's still more to be gleaned, but there are plenty of familiar faces on television with not so familiar back-stories. And while Ben didn't make the list, that doesn't mean Lost went unrepresented.

If you just want the list, click here.

10 - Dr. Helen Magnus (Sanctuary, SyFy)

9 - Captain Jack Harkness (Torchwood, BBC America)

8 - Castiel (Supernatural, The CW)

7 - Tony Almeida, (24, Fox)

6 - Angela Petrelli, (Heroes, NBC)

5 - The Devil (Reaper, The CW)

4 - Christina Scofield (Prison Break, Fox)

3 - The Doctor (Doctor Who, SyFy)

2 - Richard Alpert (Lost, ABC)

1 - Walter Bishop (Fringe, Fox)

Want to see the pictures or leave a comment? Click here.

• At 8, CBS has a new Ghost Whisperer.
• FOX has a new Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? at 8, then a new Don't Forget The Lyrics.
• PBS has a new Washington Week at 8, followed by new episodes of NOW and Bill Moyers Journal.
• MyNetwork TV has a new Smackdown! at 8.
• At 9, NBC has a new Dateline.
• Lifetime has White Christmas at 9.
• Hallmark has the movie The Most Wonderful Time of the Year at 9.
• Animal Planet has a new Whale Wars at 9.
• At 10, ABC has a new 20/20.
• CBS has a new Numb3rs at 10.
• Sci-Fi has a new Sanctuary at 10.
• Food Network has a "Holiday Treats" episode of Unwrapped at 10.
• TCM has Christmas in Connecticut at 10.
• Also at 10: E! has a new episode of The Soup, then a new Sports Soup.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk show listings.

(S01E01) This is one of the more hyped premieres of recent years on Sci Fi. It began life last year as the first big budget made for the Internet series, pumping out eight 12-18 minute webisodes. While it wasn't initially intended as a springboard for a flesh and blood television series, nevertheless it's happened. Filmed primarily on green screen, it is this aspect of the show that seems to get all the press.

That and the presence of Stargate alumnus Amanda Tapping in the starring role as Dr. Helen Magnus. Dr. Magnus runs a sanctuary for supernatural creatures gathered from all reaches of the earth and across all spectrums, including time. I enjoyed the webisodes, but found them to be scatological (some might say so) scattered in presentation. This pilot episode does a nice job of creating a cohesive narrative from many of the elements of those webisodes. Equally impressive is the quality of the special effects in use. When you consider that virtually every scene presented is a digital effect, including many of the most mundane environments, it really is a testament to how far computer technology has come. And what better place to showcase these advancements than Sci Fi.

Many on this site, both reviewers and commenters, have complained for many years now on the way that Sci Fi Channel handles the airing of their original programs. The main complaint has been that viewers have had to wait nearly six months, or more, between the time part one of the season ended in the summer and part two began at the end of January. Most recently these complaints have been addressed about Stargate Atlantis.

Well, those complaints may have finally been heard by the programming wonks over at Sci Fi because Atlantis looks to be continuing its season through the fall. After completing the first half of its run on September 26th, with a break for Labor Day, Atlantis will return to the schedule on Friday, October 10th at its new time of 9:00 PM. The week before, it will be preempted by the two-hour series premiere of Sanctuary, which will move into the 10:00 PM slot in back of Atlantis.

Atlantis will continue to run through October, with a preemption on Halloween night due to the Ghost Hunters Live event. Whether or not the remaining ten episodes of the series will wind up in 2008 or continue into 2009, when the last half of Battlestar Galactica airs, has yet to be addressed.

It's coming. The table is set, the players are on the field, the sails are raised, and the pretty maids are all in a row. Of course, I speak of the 2008-09 television schedule. In just a few short weeks viewers will be able to dine on a number of favorite and new dishes that are being served by the networks as well as the increasing number of cable channels who are delving into original programming.

While other fall seasons have come and gone with nary a whimper, this season may be different. Due to the prolonged Writers Strike many shows ended their seasons quite early. Programs like Life, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, and Heroes haven't aired original episodes since the end of 2007. Heck, there hasn't been a new episode of The Shield since June of last year! So, the beginning of the 2008-09 season will be a second chance for some of these shows, particularly the ones that premiered last season, to show their worth to fans and the networks.

As I said earlier, most of Sunday was taken up by panels for NBCU's cable channels. I heard, for instance, that the Oxygen panel for Coolio's Rules was a bit of a trainwreck, with Coolio actually getting up and singing. I wouldn't know, since I skipped most of the afternoon panels to check in at home and do some writing for you fine folks.

But I came down in time for the SciFi Channel's press conferences, which had the cast and producers of the series Sanctuary and the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica.

Let's start with Caprica. Right now, it's a two-hour backdoor pilot; the SciFi Channel will decide to pick it up as a series once they see the pilot. I can see why they might be a bit reluctant. From the scenes I saw, it felt more like The Godfather with some science thrown in, rather than the BSG everyone knows.

Friends telling you Lost is the best thing since sliced bread? Everyone laughing at you at work because you're lost when they talk about that wacky island? Don't know who Jack, Kate and Sawyer are and whether or not John Locke is more than just some old dead philosopher? Ridiculed for being a Lost-less moron but too cheap of a bastard to go out and pick up those DVD sets? Well, good news.

Rarely does a show hit television that's so serialized it's almost impenetrable to come late into. And even more rarely does a network let it last past ten episodes; FOX'll yank it in one if they think they can get enough videos of aquatic life attacking compiled in time for a special. Well, never fear ... it's Sci Fi to the rescue!

That's right, starting September 15th, you can catch four episodes of Lost every Monday on Sci Fi. And Lost is a show that works even better in large chunks like that. I recorded the entirety of season three to my DVR before I even started it and wolfed it down in a weekend! But wait, there's more ... like what that picture has to do with this story!